For Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer, Bevacizumab Plus Chemotherapy Not Effective

the Cancer Therapy Advisor take:

According to a new study published in the journal Lung Cancer, researchers have found that the combination of bevacizumab, paclitaxel, and carboplatin did not achieve the prespecified objective response rate goal for the treatment of patients with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-mutant non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who have failed prior EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) therapy.

For the phase 2 study, researchers enrolled 31 patients with stage 3B or 4 EGFR-mutant non-squamous NSCLC who had failed prior TKI therapy between 2010 and 2013. All patients had an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status of 0 or 1.

Patients received bevacizumab 15mg/kg intravenously, paclitaxel 200mg/m2 intravenously, and carboplatin AUC 5 or 6 on day 1 of each 21-day cycle. Cycles were repeated for up to three to six cycles until disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. For the 30 evaluable patients, the objective response rate was 37% (90% CI: 24 - 52) and the disease control rate was 83% (95% CI: 66 - 92).

Results showed a median progression-free survival and median overall survival of 6.6 months (95% CI: 4.8 - 12.0) and 18.2 months (95% CI: 12.0 - 23.4), respectively. In regard to safety, the most common severe adverse events were neutropenia and febrile neutropenia.